Marshall Islands National Election 2003 — Trends and Implications By Giff Johnson* Abstract The 2003 national election in the Marshall Islands, the sixth since constitutional government started in 1979, continued the trend of major re-registration of voters in advance of the election, as candidates organized the re-registration of voters from one voting district to another. The 2003 election demonstrated the most-ever impact of offshore voters living in the United States and elsewhere, with about 14 percent of the total vote from postal absentee voters. An interesting development of this offshore vote was that the government sent numerous election officials to Hawaii and the US mainland in advance of the election to provide ballots to registered voters to insure a high turnout of Marshall Islanders living outside of the Marshall Islands. Yet the offshore postal absentee vote generally favored the more conservative, traditional leader-supported opposition party candidates than it did the government party ones. In a country that still maintains a strong customary system, the election returned the commoner- dominated government to power despite the strong opposition of tradition chiefs. This confirmed that the 1999 vote unseating a government led by a traditional chief was not an anomaly. The opposition Ailin Kein Ad (AKA) Party, led by prominent traditional chiefs, made the lack of traditional support for the governing United Democratic Party (UDP) an issue in the election campaign. But domestic voters were not swayed by this issue and indeed the outcome of the election may relate more to voters’ perceptions of the personalities of the various candidates than to traditional support or lack thereof for the UDP. In fact, the voters way of striking a balance between the parties was demonstrated in a uniquely Marshallese manner by electing two key AKA-aligned paramount chiefs, but giving the parliamentary majority to the UDP. The relative disorganization of the government’s election office led to an unprecedented level of challenges of individual senate, mayor and council seats in the High Court in the weeks and months after the completion of the November 2003 vote. As of this writing (July 2004), several election appeals were pending in Marshall Islands courts. The court challenges also reflect the growing sophistication of candidates and voters who are demanding greater accountability and higher quality performance on the part of government agencies. Background on the 2003 national election Although the lead up to the November 17, 2003 national election in the Republic of the Marshall Islands was relatively tame and non-controversial (until the final 10 days of the campaign), the stakes were extremely high. The 1999 national election had stunned most political observers, as the UDP, headed by then incumbent Speaker Kessai Note, won a majority in the Nitijela (parliament), resulting in a commoner being elected to the lead the Marshall Islands for the first time in its short history of constitutional government. Paramount chiefs had led the previous governments, elected every four years since 1979. Amata Kabua was the nation’s founding President and a paramount chief for Majuro Atoll, the capital of the Marshall Islands. He served in that capacity until his death in late 1996, less than a year into his fifth term. His cousin Imata Kabua, the paramount chief for Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Ralik Chain, succeeded him. Although there have been opposition members of the Nitijela since inception, the opposition groups as well as the government party were not formally organized political parties. The Ainiken Ri-Majol (Voice of the Marshalls) lasted into the early 1990s, until key members jumped to President Amata Kabua’s government party. A Ralik Ratak Democratic Party (RRDP) led an active campaign against Kabua’s government in the lead up to the 1991 national election, but while becoming the first opposition group to raise issues and call for reforms in a consistent and organized fashion, the RRDP did not do well at the polls, with only two of its candidates elected. The RRDP faded from view soon after the election in 1991. Key political developments in the late 1990s led to the formation of the UDP. The second year of President Imata Kabua’s tenure, 1998, proved tumultuous and unprecedented in Marshall Islands politics. In the early part of the year, church organizations led a campaign to do away with legislation passed two years earlier that had legalized gambling, leading to the introduction and widespread use of gambling machines. The church-led lobbying effort resulted in a showdown vote that established Speaker Kessai Note as an opponent of President Kabua’s party. He disqualified Kabua, Foreign Minister Phillip Muller and Senator Tony deBrum (who in 1991 was an opposition RRDP member, but who later in 1998 became President Kabua’s Finance Minister) from voting on the measure to remove the gambling law because he said they had a conflict of interest because they owned gambling machines. The Nitijela vote on the amendment was successful, voiding the gambling act. This marked the first time in modern history that a church-led movement had affected a significant piece of legislation. Speaker Note’s disqualification of the President and two MPs resulted in a court challenge. The courts ultimately sided with the Speaker, dealing another blow to the prestige of the President. Later in 1998, the President Imata Kabua reorganized his Cabinet, dropping three holdover Cabinet ministers (from the previous government of President Amata Kabua) largely because they had broken ranks on the gambling legislation. This in turn spawned the first-ever vote of no confidence in the Nitijela led by the group of ousted ministers who joined with the opposition. The opposition out- maneuvered the government party by calling for a vote by secret ballot (which they stood a greater chance of winning, given the general unwillingness of Marshall Islanders to overtly challenge the authority of a paramount chief), a move that the Speaker supported. This prompted the government party to walkout and boycott the session for several weeks, until the courts, again siding with the Speaker and the opposition, directed that the vote of no confidence could not be put off by a boycott. In the event, the vote lost by one vote: 17-16. Despite losing the vote, the opposition had increased its clout and presence with its actions and because the court sided with the opposition position. The UDP formed in 1999 in preparation for the national election. It led an active grassroots campaign, promising voters that it would put an end to government corruption through major reforms. The campaign struck a chord with local voters, who gave the UDP a slim but clear majority. While President Imata Kabua was returned to office from his home atoll of Kwajalein (where he had served continuously since 1979), voters did not support a number of his key Cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Phillip Muller and Finance Minister Tony deBrum (both of whom were four-term incumbents) from Majuro Atoll, and Justice Minister Hemos Jack of Ailuk. When the Nitijela convened in January 2000, it elected Kessai Note President. Mid-way through Note’s four-year term, key traditional leaders and Nitijela Senators Chris Loeak and Jiba Kabua (son of first President Amata Kabua) broke from the UDP, largely over disputes with the Note government over the handling of negotiations with the United States for a new economic package in the Compact of Free Association, which was to expire in late 2003. The traditional leaders wanted a new agreement for Kwajalein Atoll, home of the sophisticated US Army-operated Ronald Reagan Test Site. They argued that the $11.3 million in annual US rental payments did not provide adequate compensation to landowners, who live in slum like conditions on Ebeye Island, three miles from the missile range headquarters. Loeak became chairman of the Kwajalein Negotiation Commission, and Kwajalein became the base of the opposition. The Note government signed off on a new Compact agreement with the US in mid-2003, and – despite strong opposition from Kwajalein leaders that the terms of the revised agreement for Kwajalein were unacceptable – it was implemented just before the November national election. During late 2003, what had been an unnamed and loosely organized opposition party headed by Imata Kabua, formed into the Aelon Kein Ad (AKA) Party. It campaigned strongly on an anti-Compact platform, promising that if elected, it would work to renegotiate the terms of the Compact with the US. With the formation of the AKA, the 2003 election was the first in the country’s history with two formally organized political parties campaigning. In many past elections, there have been no political parties, or at most one officially announced party. The stakes of this election were high, though it lacked much of the drama that had highlighted the 1999 campaign. The UDP presented itself as the reform party that had demonstrated its ability to stabilize the government and to work with the US and other donor nations and agencies at the international level. The AKA, by contrast, presented itself as having the more experienced candidates who would never have agreed to what it described as the poor financial terms of the renegotiated Compact with the US. It also criticized the UDP for being anti-tradition and attempting to undermine traditional control. Key races in the 2003 election Five outer islands emerged as key election points in the UDP-AKA contest. These four were Namdrik and Ailinglaplap in the Ralik Chain, and Likiep, Mejit and Utrik in the Ratak. In general, the AKA dominated the Ralik Chain islands (including Kwajalein) and the UDP the Ratak Chain (including Majuro).